The Psychological Treatment Needs of Deaf Mental Health Patients in High-Secure Settings: A Review of the Literature

A review of the literature relating to the psychological treatment needs of deaf mentally disordered offenders residing in high secure settings was conducted. Four literature searches were conducted relating to offending, mental illness, assessment and treatment with the deaf. The literature regarding these areas was found to be highly limited. Despite this, evidence suggests that deaf people are over represented in high secure facilities. It is also suggested that deaf offenders show higher levels of violent and sexual offences than their hearing counterparts. Most theories accounting for this difference in offending relate to the insufficient acquirement of social understanding however the finding may be an artefact of biases in the criminal justice system. Overall deaf people appear to experience similar levels of mental illness but greater levels of learning disability than hearing people. There are numerous sources of error when conducting assessments with deaf people. Similarly there are a number of challenges when delivering interventions with deaf people. These issues are discussed in terms of their implications for the psychological treatment needs of deaf mentally disordered offenders. Suggestions for future research include making use of systematic case studies to avoid some of the methodological challenges of researching this population.